The Past Cuts Deep

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The moist air was dense enough to choke on. It hadn't rained in such a degree for years in this region, and the lands partially littered with splotches of little pools of flooded terrain. But despite the storm, the sun shone brighter than ever to make up for it. Down in the land of soaked bark, bushes, bees and bears, a lone batfolk soared and weaved. The serene grace of watching all the land glimmering with little fragments of water only echoed beauty in the vast forest. Despite Zeph's nearsightedness, going close to the tops really made him feel alive. Free. Himself.

It was magical seeing the world from such a high view when he first learned to fly, but part of him hated to admit that he was getting used to it. The same colors changed with new lands and seeing them all was one of his favorite feelings. But... a feeling of normalcy to flying out and about was regrettably setting in with time. Now, it was simply a convenient way to get to places and a blessing that enabled his hobbies. Taking time to heal an injured leg and an all-night trip southwest wasn't his first plan, but... He hadn't been in this region for a while. The place he was heading would be a place to fully relax and rewind for a bit. So if everything went according plan, he would get a well due break. Finding the branch of a tall tree as his vantage point, Zeph slowed his movement and dropped onto it. The branch shifted and leaned with a slight bend, but it prevailed.

He took a few stretches before finding a comfortable position on the branch and pulling out the metallic eye. Such a fuss for the thing, though Zeph thought it was worth it. A little spot of revenge and a new metallic friend who couldn't help but listen. Zeph wasn't sure if he could even consider it sentient, but it made talking easier. Besides, what was the point of this trouble if he wasn't going to use this new toy?

Hinode 25, Noon - Speakers: Zeph

Zeph: Wondering what happened, eh? Well, when you’re as skilled and cunning as I am... you bet chumps are looking to gut ya every way down to Sunday. Heh. Guess Jack ain't a fan of losing his trinkets, but I bet he'll lay off after a while. All I gotta do is wait. And if you're the type of chump who isn't real fond of me nabbing stuff like this, well, I doubt you found something like this legitimately anyways, so you're in my boat now. Hah!

But really. You get people hopping up clouds of dust over a few coins getting mugged, then those same chumps gladly give it away to the chumps ruling them. The only thing people have money for is some dumb mindset that it'll solve all your problems. If you found a pile of shiny rocks and told me they're as useful as some steel-eyed familiar... Hehehe. Maybe useful if you can throw em real hard or make em walk. The only reason I even steal money to pay for stuff is cus I don't plan on upsetting EVERY schmoe I come across. Really. How much better would the world be if chumps started living for themselves and not for nice shiny chains?

But I digress. If you hate me, you just gotta endure me enough to cheer me on for all the crazy stuff I’ve experienced and lived through. And if you hate me, you'll still get a kick out of my life. Just be careful I don't kick back. Cus I got stories, and I’m not dying before I put my foot down and cement it into this world. This first tale… is all about me! So, go sit down somewhere and get comfortable. This is the story about how a legend is born.

First, if you missed it, I'm a batfolk. For anyone who knows the typical ‘ratty long-ear’... You'd probably assume I'm a lil' prim, proper errand boy. Or a sports fanatic. Maybe some nutcase about nature. Now, all of 'em talk about how important it is to stick to the natural order of things, like working, following rules, doin' nature's bidding, all that typical forest folk stuff. But when it comes down to it, they live as flat as anyone. More than most forestfolk, actually.

I was born in this big tree community. Whole little area nested in the giant branches and leaves of a plump thick tree. And don't think imagine it small. That place is a massive maze of trying to find your way around everything. Branches and housing here, statue there, massive twilight court in the middle... Forestfolk are normally pretty gifted with nature magic, so they grow branches into platforms, rooms, roofs, the whole nine yards. It makes the place way safer than any other homes in the forest, cus you gotta scale the ridiculous trunk just to get up there. A few other forestfolk lived there too, but not long. It's really just batfolk. You don't find humans around either besides diplomacy or traveling.

To be blunt, I hate the chumps in that place. But when you’ve seen as much of the world as I have, you start realizing they got quite a knack for style. They've got these fancy little figurines everywhere, dozens of wind chimes making the ambient air hum, jars of fireflies hangin' from branches... Oh, and some of those chumps even have these little bundles of herbs that they burn for the smell. You’d never see me being a scent guy, but I wasn't complaining. Hah! And if you want somewhere to sleep, I think they're the only chumps around here who got it figured out. They got these real nice hammocks you can hang upside-down in, normal ones, typical beds for chumps, hanging sticks, and a bunch of weird magical stuff you can do with sleep. Ever wanted to share a dream with someone? Knock on the right door and they'll do it for free. Some of em even do it with animals.

Anyways, at birth, I slipped into this waking world about half-dead. And in terms of close calls, both my mother and I just barely made it. I was a runt born with misshaped traits, came way later than they planned, and had a twin brother that only lasted a few hours. That damned poor soul was born with a spike cracking out of his skull. Made him comatose. Poor Bud's death spooked my father cold, so he believed I wasn’t making it either.

But nah, I held on, and I’m lucky that in terms of life altering issues, I didn’t have some extra head or something. I was born skinnier than most batfolk around, have some orange splotches all across my fur when I don't dye it, and get this, I grew a long, skinny tail with fur on it. Now, the little bat animals that everyone says batfolk come from have tails, and nobody bats an eye. But a walking, talking batfolk gets born with one? Whole group goes ballistic. Forestfolk think that we all ascended from animals, so maybe I really did tap into some primal history along the way, ey? Heh. But the bottom line was I looked weird to em. And if you think being special is neat, you can bet none of my peers had that stance.

Some of them thought I was cursed with death, or a demon from the underworld. Heh. Maybe they were right about that part. All they saw me as was a savage mutant that wasn't even a real part of the group. An insult to the family legacy. Now, I can't deny that I was a bit of a wild child, but being born different than everyone else? I don't have a choice. The whole family thought of remedies for my "condition" like rinsing out my blood and cutting off my tail at one point, especially spearheaded by this one crazy lady who happened to be my aunt. Risen from hell to fell the angels. Destroy what was pure in this world. Man, the nerves that lady has to go on like that about a little kid like that...

But you know what's the most shocking about all that? My father let me get out of that slouchfest mostly unscathed. That was the only thing he did right, actually. Anything else? He's this massive pushover who couldn’t think his own thoughts if he wanted to. He got this big job as family co-leader and these punks loved it. You give him a few sweet words and he would endorse whatever you wanted. Real high praise from everyone, which meant his kid was a big deal. But... he's not one for letting a kid like me get who knows what happening to em, and I’m glad he had a sneaking suspicion that their ideas were all stupid religious hunches. when the rumors about chopping my tail off or using fleshcrafting magic came up, that man stood firm. He wasn’t about to lose another son with freak magic, so he really fought em tooth and nail at times. Figuratively and literally. And wouldn’t you know it? I'm glad that chump stood his ground. He's a two-faced crowd-pleaser, but I can’t quite knock em there. Instead, he dyed my fur normal and tried feeding me more. "Plumping me up" as he called it. Maybe if he wasn't so washy with other people, we could've had something.

The other family though? Ha!

My mother on the other hand was a shouty lass who ruled over anything she touched with an iron fist. Fancy magic too. She was the real co-leader in the family, it's just that they didn’t allow ladies to get that position. Heh. Instead of breaking the rules down, she messed with them in all sorts of ways. Jeez, if I was going to tell you how crafty she's been with working around all those dumb things, I could be here all day. Despite all the dumb rules, she had a foot on authority regardless. She was driven, but I guarantee you there wasn’t any soul in that body. You mess up once? You get punished. Straight up monarchy attitude on this lady. She even roughed me up when stuff didn’t go her way, not to mention all the sly remarks.

Told me that I was a mistake once.

...

Heh. For her.

But luckily, she wasn’t always around a ton. She scrounged her way into being an assistant diplomat for forestfolk and left for weeks or even months just to talk about a bunch of political stuff. I was pretty interested in some of that when I was young, but now? Trust me when I say it, it's a bunch of chumps who want power that can't make up their minds.

Now, after I started learning how to fly properly, there was this one night I was out wandering around. I was a bit scared of heights at first, so I liked being around the trunk a lot. There were a few homes around there, but generally a quiet chill spot. Pretty slow around there. So at this time when I was there, my aunt suddenly flew over to me out of the blue. She whispered to me that she wanted to go on a little trip to grab more shrooms, herbs, y'know. A typical task to hand a small child in the middle of the night. She said I was gonna surprise my parents with something big, so then I got real eager. Man, word of advice if you're young. Don't go into the woods with insane lunatics. Now, a chump like me hadn’t learned how to say no yet, so I grabbed onto her and stayed shut as she flew out into the woods. Itty bitty me had barely seen anything past home, so you better bet I just went and didn’t tell a soul.

She brought me to a distant place far out from the tree and set me down, laughing cheerfully all the way. When she sat me down, she told me to take a seat and then started trying to lecture me. She said she kept secrets and kept the family safe, cured em of what ails you. And that she was gonna cure me of my sickness. The fact she didn't clarify should've been enough for most chumps, but man was I stupid. This lady had the most manic look plastered on her face I’ve ever seen a batfolk make. All the while, she told me to spin around, face the ground, and I just complied. Face planted in the dirt. "Trust the process!"

Next thing I knew, I got a knee pinning me down as this idiot snickered and pulled out a knife. I started crying. Psycho started slicing through my tail, laughing all the way through and telling me it was gonna be okay. All the while, I'm screaming bloody murder. I start kicking and screaming, trying to escape this mad lady's foot slamming me down. But what was little kid me gonna do at that point? This insane lady. She just kept shredding through it with a jagged-edge knife, back and forth, with a squelch and splatter of flesh tearing. Hell, she might've been stabbing me elsewhere too, cus I remember coughing blood. Not like you can tell with all the pain stabbing you everywhere anyways. And she went deep, like, bone deep. It sounded like this horrible scrunching, popping, steel grinding. Don't even try and imagine it, you don't wanna. All I knew was it felt like I was going to die.

Horrible thing about it is, she had planned that whole night out. Yu... Psycho lady had flown real far off cus batfolk are probably the best chumps at hearing that you could ever find. Screaming for my family wasn't gonna help. And worse, I was the little midget who couldn’t fly well and couldn’t do a single thing about it. The family probably wouldn't have even cared, so I was really just hopeless.

Trapped in circumstances that I never asked for.

But. I was lucky.

All of a sudden, there's this figure sprinting towards us. Aunt must’ve noticed since she looked up and stared at it with the most scared, wrinkly face I’ve ever gazed at. She spouted off some profanities real quick before getting sliced to pieces. Decimated. The thing slashed straight through her eye, broke into her head, gouged her ear, and almost killed her right then and there. Serves her right, but she slipped away after getting hit a few more times, and that wasn’t the last I saw of her. At that moment, the only thing I was seeing was red. I dunno if it was shock or blood rushing, but everything was fading QUICK. Before I knocked cold, that thing walked back up to me and picked me up. Now, as an itty bitty kid, I was a little scattered about what I remembered or not. Generally the important stuff. But with all this happening, you’d think that THIS PERSON is what I’d remember better than anything.

Here's the funny thing.

I can't.

And you better bet it’s some magic shenaniganry like a suppressed memory spell or something like that, cus that was MY life this chump just saved. And being unable to remember who it was or what they looked like, you bet I still hate that fact to this day. Believe me, I tried. Met with magic folk, ate a bunch of stuff that supposedly pulls memories back, asked around, and the result? Nothing. Just a lone wolf that saved my tail. Literally. Someday I'm gonna run across em, I'm sure of it.

Anyway, after all the chaos, I woke up that evening back home in my bed. Everything ached and hurt, but you know something shocking? No visible scars or damage anywhere. Whoever that figure was must’ve healed me. And my aunt came back unscathed too, but get this! She accused me of tryin’ to kill her in the middle of the forest. Oh, "a demon transforming right before my eyes!" I wasn't a real batfolk; I was some fake! Hah! I tried setting the record straight, but of course, not remembering who saved you doesn't leave much room for credibility. Or the scars. The family decided to curfew us both for a month, making sure we were kept on opposite sides of town. Some lousy punishment. My aunt was lucky that's all she got, cus if I had any more two cents, I would've stopped that injustice right then and there. They knew she was crazy, but seeing me throw a rebuttal back? Hah! They must've thought we had some hallucination trip or crazy combined dream that went south. But I know what I saw, and that day's stuck with me since. At the time, I was obsessed enough with it that father made fun of me for having this imaginary hero I always pretended like I had. I hated him for a while cus of that, but being the snot dribbler I was, maybe I deserved it.

Now, getting older, they gave me a few shots at educating, and it worked just as well as you'd think. They didn't like people gettin' creative, stepping out of line, or any form of class participation. Not to mention, I didn't exactly work well with the other class folk. Instead, they just let me wander around the tree for a few months until my father came up with a new teaching plan. His plan was me getting tutored by this old lady who couldn’t even echolocate anymore. Granted, she was sweet, but that chump couldn't stop teaching at me like I was braindead. Slow and dull too. The only thing that she taught me was her collection of books. Tales from around the world... You better believe some of those were actually true, too.

At that point, you know what I wanted more than anything else at that time? To see the grand lands out there. To get out of that dumb tree. There was a whole world of mystery and intrigue out there, and nobody cared. Critters and sights galore, a land filled with vast potential that couldn't be grasped by anything but the biggest and baddest folk you could ever find. Ever since the whole fiasco with my aunt happened, those people always kept an eye on me and stopped me from going anywhere outside the tree. “Oh! You just need to apply yourself, and you’ll be so great!” they all said. Yeah, and the best way to do that ain’t listening to someone ramble on about some writings which talk about whats out there. It’s being there and seein' it for yourself.

So!

When I got older, I snuck out a few times and tried to find my way around the forest. It didn't work very well at first, but I kept at it. Even found a bunch of bandits once. Those chumps chased me all the way back home cus they thought I was spying on em. I flew all back to the tree, and right after, they hurried off like scared little girls when the family guard shook em up. They're not good fighters, but you’d be scared too if there were a lot of em staring at with you with crossbows and swords.

Now, after a while, the family finally started getting sick of trying to corral me all the time. My father said he was going to leave for a bit to find mother, cus at that point she'd been way past due for her group coming back. He went over with his own squad and that was the last I saw of him too. Now I was getting watched by the family, and most of em didn't know what to do with me. The time kept ticking for my parents, but they still weren't back. I moved in with that old lady for a while, but after getting to be 13, that group of chumps finally got an idea. They let me explore wherever I wanted all around the forest. Freedom to do anything. I was finally old enough that they didn't have to baby me. Except... those chumps still didn't trust me. They let me free on account of getting followed by this forestfolk named Casper everywhere instead. He was my new caretaker. Like that's normal. Apparently, he knew a guy who knew another guy, and now he's a de facto friend of the family, y'know? And not just with diplomacy, he got googly eyes from a ton of em. And after what felt like forever, Casper actually could pick up what I put down. He meant business. Don’t think he’d beat me in a fistfight nowadays, but you gotta respect knowin’ I can’t hide from that man if I wanted to. Even when flying.

Casper at the time was this pretty middle-aged folk, with orange-gold fur, a big ol’ snout, and a big bushy tail. I hadn’t seen many walkin’ foxes around the land, and much less ones that gave me such a run for my money. Heh, he even put fox pelts up on his own for display. Serves chumps right trying to compare us to things like that. Now, he's as shrewd as they come, but he's a real decent guy. This chump barely let me catch my breath on hunts. Made me look at every detail, every little tool, and he sure wasn't a pushover. I wanted to see the world, so he made me work for it. At that point, I could navigate the forest even with rocks in my ears. Nothing was getting out of this chump's sight. Along with that, I finally touched base with the life outside the tree. Actual houses. In the towns around, they have these little huts that forestfolk live in, and most species do things all a little bit differently. Especially owlfolk. Don't ever mess with an owlfolk. The only rules around were the ones made by the Ground Pack, which is just a fancy term for the forest kingdom. I wasn't part of any tribe or family there; I was just myself.

And that was fantastic.

The family told Casper that they bet the only path for me was going to be trapping or hunting since I wasn’t doing well with “normal people.” But I learned more from that community and probably made more friends than most of the chumps up in the tree ever did. Funny how those things play out. Now I gotta say, I have no clue how much Casper got paid by my family to take me in, but I bet he made em pay a lot. Cus he wasn't a slouch. Turns out HIS growing up was way less about teachin' and more about doing. Lucky bastard. He isn’t afraid to get messy either. I learned more about what’s inside more things by gutting them than any book was gonna tell me in years. Casper said he’s a fan of going places too, and he had plenty of stories he shared about the wilds. We went around a bit on occasion too. I don’t think I’d be the legend I am today without him giving me a shot. Even when I went off about the craziness in my old place, he actually listened. He wasn’t laughing in my face or calling me a demon or something benign like that. He just listened. He kept making fun of my decisions and antics, but he listened.

I got plenty of stories about me and him for another day, but bottom line, we did everything together. For a good number of years, that was my life. And if it stuck like that, maybe it wouldn't have been awful.

But there was one day that all changed.

For the worse.

I was out grabbing some of our traps to relocate to fresher turf, Caster was cooking some camp stew, it was a regular day. I was in charge of grabbing a few ingredients around the place since I was getting a better ear for it, so I left the traps behind and left for a bit. When you trust someone enough to walk out into the woods alone, that's when you know you've made it in life. A life of danger out there. But when I walked back with what I needed, I heard voices. Angry voices. As soon as I got closer, I hid and listened as this group sat around trying to rough up Casper. Two chumps were standing over him, shouting like they were drunk. Probably were, actually. Casper was collapsed near the tents while this buff snob of a human dangled a sword over his head. Meanwhile, this lackey's rabbitfolk bud started interrogated him. As I listened, it turned out they were gonna try and jail him for violating some natural order rules garbage. Turns out he and I hunted some critters going extinct. Also, soul crystals are illegal out there. They store the magic of something after you kill it, but these chumps believe a bunch of mojo about releasing em into the spirit world. Oh no, I'm killing the forest with every one I trap! Except chumps around the rest of the world don’t give a rat’s tuckus about that. Not to mention, that doesn't make a lick of sense.

I was scared and terrified to try and do anything, but you know what set me off? All this was to get a hint about some powerful forest beast out of Casper. They wanted to be set for life by finding it, and he knew where it was. Of course, he didn't budge an inch, so they started kicking and bashing him. They were gonna kill him right then and there, and I wasn’t going to let that happen. I jumped right onto that human and bit down on his neck, clawing into his back and tearing through it. He was so surprised, he dropped forward screaming and tried prying me off. He struggled hard, but there wasn’t a chance he was getting his life back after that. The other chump was about to kick me off, but Casper had my back and suddenly brandished a knife. It was a whole mess of a fight, and those few seconds made blood spill everywhere. I only felt rage as I tore through that neck. I killed the human, but that rabbitfolk ran for the high hills.

I didn't get hurt, but Casper got hit for saving me. The rabbitfolk had a spear and got him right in the side. He told me to run for it cus this forest wasn’t safe anymore. It was gonna be our tomb. Well… he was right about that. But I wasn’t about to leave him to die in the middle of nowhere like that. Not after all that stuff he did for me. He was a close family friend, so y'know what my first thought was? Head back to the tree and get the family to heal him. 'They were just plannin' on jailing him anyway, so there was no reason he had to die like that,' I told myself. Even after Casper directly told me I was gonna die trying, I didn't listen.

Flying all the way back to the tree, I got screams and magic straight into my face. Turns out having a bloody face doesn't scream a need for support. With a swift punch to the face and a kick to the ground, they told me that the damn rabbit got here first. He told them I was a murderer. I was pleading my case that they were going to kill Casper, and that he needed help, but you can guess what happened. They didn't listen. They chained me up, brought me to their in-house court, and held a trial deciding my fate. I tried to struggle out of there, but those chumps tied me up before they even decided anything. My family brought up all the past rumors, my history, and plenty of people I thought were friends told me how awful I was right to my face.

The family decided they were gonna kill me. For protecting my chum.

For a bunch of chumps that are really insistent on peace, nature, unity, honor, all that schmuck, you'd think they value that. You'd think they give sympathy for everything working against me. But life ain’t like that. They don’t like when someone’s doing the right thing. And chumps like them make it perfectly clear that some people really do deserve to die.

After the decision was final, they brought me to the base of that big tree. A bunch of forestfolk and family watched as they gave this little speech about renewing life. Their whole prospect was I'd die and be born someday as a better man. Sickos. The way they execute people is brutal, mental, and straight-up torture. They use magic to open up a tree and then throw someone in it. Now, you think that's bad? It's days long and it's agony. The walls started slowly closing in, little by little every minute. When you can't move anymore, little roots grow into your skin. They go deep, and they HURT. It feels like little slow needles of death prodding into you everywhere and anywhere. It sucks the life out of you, replacing it with stronger roots that don't give up. You become the fertilizer to nurture the tree. You can see how messed up this is, right? All the while, their thoughts are I could be used for something 'greater'. I screamed out, but the wood just made everything muffled. It crushed me just enough to hurt, but not enough to kill me. And the worst part was the time, the endless time of regret and hate. It was slow, and it was agony.

My family just sat there looking all mopey when they locked me in. They didn’t do a single thing to try and listen to me or even help Casper. Mother and Father were nowhere to be found for years. And my brothers from the family all didn't care. They weren’t gonna lift a finger either. Casper was out there dying, and he warned me not to come back. He wasn't going to save me. He couldn't. And that strange figure? Seems like once was enough for em. No trinkets, tricks, knives, or any of that. Just a hollow emptiness and pain as I was trapped in a cage of wood.

Nobody would ever hear me again, and I felt like every part of me was screaming murder. That’s what the family always wanted for me. To get rid of the problem. For a while, I was just stuck there, rotting. I was defeated, but something made me keep going. I knew my life was over, but I couldn't accept it. I felt like I was going insane. Outside, I was quiet. I didn’t try and scream out to the family cus there was no point. But inside? I was burning up. These villains. These absolute scum of the earth act like they're right when they don’t know a single thing about what matters. And they had the gall to hurt the closest friend I had for their own benefit. The wood cut deep, but those scumbags cut deeper. At that point, I knew that I wasn't in the wrong. I knew that I had to do something to keep living. That rage I felt. That drive that motivated me. When there’s nobody you can rely on but yourself, you don't hold back. You make your own future because nobody makes it for you. And in that moment, I discovered a lil' something in me I didn't know I had.

I channeled everything I had into one last push, one last effort to escape. And you know what happened?

I blew up.

And that whole tree started bursting into flames.

Now, most chumps would think that means I died. I didn’t, though some of that wood bled into my real sore and painful body. The explosion made an entrance out of this trunk for me and it was beautiful. I could see moonlight. Those wooden veins started setting on fire and melting off me. I was covered in fire. Smoke. Ash. But I didn’t care if I was burning alive, I was able to move. I climbed out of the base to be greeted by a group of family guards just stinkin' terrified of me. And you better bet I had a bone to pick with em. I socked the first guy straight in the face and he went straight flying. Another one ran towards me with a spear, but I yelled as fire dripped out of my mouth and onto him. He caught ablaze, and suddenly jumped back. I had power and I had control. More and more family poured out of the tree, trying to see what happened. And you know what I sent back in return? A stinking ball of fire straight into their faces. I wasn’t even sure what was happening. I was burning up yet able to control it. I could barely even see past the flames, but I kept going. I started throwing fire everywhere. The whole place started smoking like crazy, and most of the family ran to get it put out. One guard here and one there kept getting lit like moths to a flame, and I kept at it. The guards started flying out of the building as I flew up and lit more things on fire. They made the right call, but while everyone was flying away, there was one person who stayed.

My aunt.

That awful, horrible, lying sack of insane voracity.

Y'know what? I’ll let you in on her name for this one.

Yuya was one of the main chumps that got me started on this whole mess, and she said she was saving everyone instead. Told me how she knew this was gonna happen, that I was finally showing my true colors. But y'know what shocked me? She’d been training for this day. The day she was gonna kill me herself cus she got scared those years ago. Yuya kicked open a pot of water and it swirled all around her with this magic tingling. It glimmered all shiny as she moved it. She said she had ‘inner foresight’ that I was gonna mess up someday, and she was waiting for her right chance to be some vigilante. Course, she didn’t try to kill me when I was stuck in the tree or gettin' arrested, so something tells me she was bluffing about everything.

Now, while I was paying attention to her monologue, water came from some jars below and pushed me up into the air. It froze all around me, extinguishing my flames and leaving me like a living popsicle. She leaped towards me, water swirling all around as she prepared a knife to stab me straight in the eye. But it’s a good thing she didn’t cover me fully. I took a swallow of air and breathed out a giant waft of fire right in her mangy face, leaving her scrambling to put it out like a dancing fire spirit. It was amazing. The first time I felt like I was able to act. That I had more than my fate dragging me along on a leash. I was using magic, and it was AMAZING.

Only took me a little more time to get on fire again and melt the ice, but of course, she had put herself out already. She tried grabbing me with a water hand, but as she did, I dashed and kicked her straight into one of the houses midair. Wood was flyin' everywhere. The room was pretty small and I didn't let up. I kept punching the snot out of her as she struggled to do anything. I was getting my revenge, but she wasn’t having it. All the water she melted from the ice? All came rushing into the room and surrounded me again. But this time, she surrounded me in this big bubble of water. And she wasn’t done. It rushed into every little crevice that the wood made and held me there. It was in my body, all my wounds, in the nails, nose, mouth, everything. I was being held there and choked while I desperately tried to claw the water off my face. But I couldn’t move and I couldn’t breathe. I shot a bolt of fire toward her, but all that water surrounding me snuffed it out instantly. Even when I tried flying towards her, she pulled me further back into the room. That bloody face of hers smiled at me. Inside me, everywhere, I felt like I was gonna rupture. I underestimated what she could do, and even though she was hurt, It looked like she was gonna come out on top.

I went limp, not fighting back from her pressure. She laughed, thinking I had finally given up. I started just floating there, losing consciousness and seeing darkness. You better bet she slowed her magic to take a rest, and I took that chance. With everything I had left, I shifted to the back of the bubble and springboarded off the drawer behind me. It went with me but popped as I crashed into Yuya with another punch. Something cracked, and brain matter got hard-pressed into the wall behind her. The water fell like water normally does, and she started bleeding everywhere.

She was out.

I fell and coughed out water for a good minute. She wasn’t fighting me anymore, and I ended her life. I was in pain, but I was alive.

I took a second to look at everything around me. After everything, it felt… still. There was still a ton of commotion outside with people rushing to put out the fire at the base while I just sat there listening to it burn. There were parts of this place I hated, but it was sentimental, y'know? This was where I grew up, and as much as I hate to say it, not all the family was as crazy as Yuya. And now everything was getting consumed in flames. My flames.

But hey, it toughened me up. I left that place knowing I was something more, and you bet I haven’t been back there since.

Now, that’s a whole lot to throw onto your plate at once. So, for all those who weren’t listening all that well, my summary for you is this. My family was a bunch of chumps, this weird stranger saved me in the woods one day, and I got crazy awesome magic. Course, all this was messed up for the family to do. For all the forestfolk to do. But I'd be lying if I said there weren't some nice highlights of my life there. Maybe even a story for another day, eh? Hehe.

Now then, I think it’s about time I stop resting and get traveling again.

Oh, and don't think that I forgot about Casper.

I'll see ya real soon.

Recording Ended